The hope is the new system will be more user-friendly, especially for occasional riders, tourists and people with language or cognitive barriers. The TTC says it will also work well with mobile technology and won’t be expensive to implement.

Right now, service on one route — like the Yonge-University-Spadina line — goes by many names: YUS, Yonge subway and Spadina trains, for example.

The problem will get worse as the line extends into Vaughan, the report says.

If the new system is approved, the Yonge-University-Spadina line would become 1; Bloor-Danforth 2; the Scarborough RT 3; the Sheppard line 4; and future lines would be numbered in ascending order.

The TTC says familiar names — Bloor-Danforth, Sheppard, etc. — will continue to be used alongside the numbers in many cases.

“The TTC already uses line numbers for the subway, just not in a public way,” spokesman Brad Ross tweeted earlier this month.

The commission also hopes to use its historic subway font on more signs and simplify its maps.

A pilot project to test out the changes could happen by the end of the year at Bloor-Yonge and St. George stations.

Paris — which has 16 subway lines — uses a numbered system, and New York City — which has 24 — uses a combination of numbers and letters.

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